Cuts In Passenger Loads, Service

Air Canada

• Plans to cut capacity for the rest of March by eight percent and for April and May by 15 percent (compared to a year ago) as part of changes to include job cuts.

Air France

• Will cut flights by seven percent in April after bucking the industry’s trend over the past year by raising capacity.

Air Jamaica

• To cut 52 weekly flights to New York and other U.S. destinations. The cuts will reduce seat capacity by 18 percent and are expected to last three months.

Alitalia

• The government-owned Italian airline has cancelled one return flight between Milan and Paris until April 13. A return flight between Rome and Paris will also be cancelled from March 30 to April 13. Alitalia has also suspended flights to Amman, Beirut, Damascus and Dubai. 

American Airlines

• Cuts international flights by six percent in April, adding to a cut of seven percent on U.S. domestic routes already in effect.

Asiana Airlines

• South Korea’s Asiana Airlines Inc plans to change flights beginning March 30, including domestic flights and services between Inchon, South Korea and Guam.

British Airways

• Has cut services by four percent until the end of May, including a six-percent reduction on North Atlantic routes serving the United States and Canada. BA has also cancelled flights to Kuwait but will resume one of two daily return flights to Tel Aviv.

Cathay Pacific

• Twice-weekly Riyadh flight was stopping over in Dubai instead of Bahrain. 

Continental

• Suspends some flights across the Atlantic and Pacific. It cut one of two daily round-trip flights from its Newark hub to London’s Gatwick, and one of two to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Continental will fly smaller planes between Newark and both Amsterdam and Rome under changes planned for April 6 to May 1. It will also cut services between Newark and Tokyo’s Narita Airport to four per week from once a day through April 24.

Delta Air Lines

• Cutting approximately 12 percent of its flights, including on domestic routes and some trans-Atlantic flights. The U.S. cutbacks began March 27 and the trans-Atlantic changes begin April 6. They may continue beyond April if passenger demand remains weak. It was evaluating the effects of the cutbacks on staffing.

Deutsche Lufthansa

• Reducing flights in Europe, to the United States, Japan and elsewhere in cuts that will involve grounding planes. Lufthansa has cancelled flights serving Kuwait and Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It has restarted services to Amman and Tel Aviv. The world’s largest cargo airline has also imposed a temporary “war risk surcharge” on freight to offset costs.

Iberia

• Announced it would cut flights by four percent in March and three percent in April because of weaker demand on European routes. The number of weekly flights to Costa Rica rose last week to 14 from eight as part of plans to concentrate close to 50 percent of its total available seats on Latin American flights which it expects to be least affected by the war.

Iran Air

• All flights to Kuwait and Abadan in southwestern Iran are suspended until further notice. Flights to the United Arab Emirates were also cut back.

Japan Airlines

• Cuts international flights in April by eight percent. It will offer fewer flights from Tokyo and Osaka to Honolulu as well as reduced services to London, Hong Kong and Guam from Tokyo.

JAT

• Will resume flights serving Dubai via Beirut on March 31 and Tel Aviv via Larnaca from April 9. 

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

• Reducing flights by about seven percent from last year including those to New York. It plans to cut flights or use smaller planes on some routes in Europe and has cancelled Amsterdam flights to and from Kuwait and Amman, Jordan until further notice.

Korean Air

• Suspending flights to Dubai and Cairo and reduce flights to US cities including New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Honolulu through May.

Kuwait Airways

• The state-owned carrier said it would cancel all flights to Iran and some other unspecified flights due to low demand.

Malev

• Hungary’s national airline resumes scheduled flights on Monday to Beirut, Cairo, Tel Aviv and Larnaca, Cyprus. Malev had suspended scheduled flights to the four cities last Thursday.

Northwest Airlines

• Reducing flight schedule by 12 percent because of lower demand and cutting 4,900 jobs or about 11 percent of its work force.

Olympic Airways

• Stops flying to Dubai, Beirut and Alexandria, Egypt. It will reduce flights to Cairo and Larnaca, Cyprus, and consider temporary cuts to other services, including routes in Europe. It has suspended flights to Kuwait.

Qantas Airways

• Cutting international flights by up to 20 percent until mid-July.

South African Airways

• Reducing flights to and from New York to 44 from 60 in April.

Swiss International Air Lines

• Canceling its three weekly flights to Abu Dhabi from Riyadh on April 1.

Tarom

• Romanian state airline suspends its three weekly flights to Dubai until further notice. It has also suspended its two weekly flights to Beirut and Amman, Jordan.

Turkish Airlines

• Cancelled some less profitable domestic routes and suspended flights to Kuwait and Bahrain. Further cuts are under review as passengers and bookings have fallen by about 50 percent year on year since war broke out in neighboring Iraq.

United Airlines

• Operating under bankruptcy protection, will temporarily cut its worldwide schedule by about eight percent and cut costs by putting some workers on temporary unpaid leave. 

US Airways

• Operating under bankruptcy protection, will temporarily cut departures by four percent, including international flights. The No. 7 US carrier hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 this week.

FMI: www.air-transport.org